Harold Wood

Alfred Harold Wood OBE (4 May 1896 – 27 August 1989) was a 20th-century Australian Christian minister, educator, writer, hymnologist and advocate of church union.

Early life A. Harold Wood was born in Geelong, Victoria, the son of Alfred Wood (1867–1941) and Janet (nee Wemyss; 1866–1959), who were Salvation Army officers.

He was educated in Sydney and initially qualified as a barrister in Victoria.

Career in Tonga Converting to Methodism, Wood was ordained a Methodist minister in 1924 and his new bride, medical doctor Olive (nee O'Reilly) left immediately to a missionary appointment in the Kingdom of Tonga, where he was known as Haloti 'Uti (Harold Wood) and she 'Olife (Olive). In their 13 years in the Pacific nation, they developed a special fondness and love for the people and the country.

Early on, Wood supported Queen Salote with legal advice in her work to reconcile two Methodist factions and became well acquainted with and respected by the Royal Family and others.

Appointed principal of Free Wesleyan boys' boarding school Tupou College, the school moved from Nuku'alofa west to Nafualu under his leadership, and grew from 30 students to almost 400, becoming the biggest school in the country. At Wood's urging, scholarships were offered by the Tongan government to enable students to further their education in Australia, or go to Fiji for medical training.

Wood learned the Tongan language fluently and wrote (English-language) books on Tongan history and geography which were still used as secondary school textbooks at the time of his death. They had six children, all born in Tonga. Among them were Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Pacific historian and author of the definitive biography of Queen Salote of Tonga, actor Monica Maughan and churchman and hymnologist the Rev. H. D'Arcy Wood, who was president of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church from 1991 to 1994.

After Olive's death in 1976, he married Dora Walker (1920–2014).

Wood died in Melbourne in 1989, aged 93.

Honours The mainly Tongan congregation in Auburn, New South Wales named their church after him: Harold Wood Auburn Uniting Church.

He was awarded an OBE.

Biography A comprehensive 272-page biography by Ian Breward, Dr Harold Wood: A Notable Methodist, was published by Uniting Academic Press in Melbourne in 2013.

Publications History and Geography of Tonga, (1943), Auckland. By Authority. Church Unity Without Uniformity: A Study of Seventeenth-Century English Church Movements and of Richard Baxter's Proposals for a Comprehensive Church (1963), London. The Epworth Press. Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church. Volume One: Tonga and Samoa (1975), Melbourne. Aldersgate Press Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church. Volume Two: Fiji (1978), Melbourne. Aldersgate Press Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church. Volume Three: Fiji-Indian and Rotuma (1978), Melbourne. Aldersgate Press Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church. Volume Four: North India (Lucknow-Banaras District), (1980), Melbourne. Aldersgate Press with Margaret Reeson. Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church Volume Five.: Papua New Guinea Highlands: A Bridge is Built: A Story of the United Church in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (1987), Sydney. Uniting Church Commission for Mission